Pubdate: Thu, 23 Aug 2001
Source: Appeal-Democrat (CA)
Copyright: 2001 Appeal-Democrat
Contact:  http://www.appeal-democrat.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1343
Author: Lois Gormley
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

YUBA DRUG ARRESTS PROTESTED

Couple's Use Of Marijuana Defended

Carrying handwritten signs and posters, about 20 people gathered on the 
sidewalk in front of the Yuba County Courthouse Wednesday afternoon, 
protesting the recent arrest of a Linda couple who say they were growing 
marijuana in their back yard for medical use.

Armed with placards reading "Are you sick?" "Do not pass go - go directly 
to jail," "When did the D.A. become a Dr.?" and "Real police officers don't 
arrest the sick and (dying)," the protesters marched back and forth along 
Fifth Street between C and B streets, stopping occasionally to answer the 
questions of passers-by.

Protest organizer Bonnie Metcalf, of the Yuba County Compassionate Use 
Co-op, said the event's goal was to increase public awareness about medical 
marijuana.

Participants in the protest were mainly co-op members, although at least 
one woman attended because she read about the event.

"It's wrong to arrest people who have valid recommendations (from doctors 
to use the drug)," Metcalf said.

Doyle and Belinda Satterfield are such people, Metcalf said.

The Satterfields were arrested Friday after Yuba-Sutter Narcotics Task 
Force Agents, who served a search warrant on their Linda home, said they 
confiscated 37 marijuana plants and a substantial amount of processed 
marijuana.

The Satterfields, who both have recommendations from doctors to use the 
drug for medical purposes, showed their paperwork to agents but were 
arrested nonetheless.

Narcotics officials said the amount of marijuana in the home far exceeded 
the amount necessary for medical treatment. Agents had estimated the plants 
were capable of producing more than 55 pounds of marijuana, but Metcalf and 
other medical users disagree with their figures.

Doyle Satterfield is under a physician's treatment for chronic arthritis 
and insomnia. Belinda Satterfield is being treated for breast cancer and 
has had a mastectomy of her left breast.

In a telephone interview Tuesday, Doyle Satterfield's physician, Dr. Tod 
Mikuriya, confirmed he had written a recommendation for Satterfield to use 
marijuana as treatment for his ailments.

Mikuriya, who has a medical degree from Temple University Medical School in 
Philadelphia, is in private psychiatric practice in Berkeley.

Mikuriya, who, according to his Web site is "one of the world's foremost 
authorities" on the uses of medical cannabis, said he has had other 
patients who have run into problems with the law despite having his 
recommendation in their possession.

The Satterfields were released Friday evening on their own recognizance but 
have been ordered to appear in court Sept. 11. Their marijuana has not been 
returned to them, Metcalf said.

"If (Belinda Satterfield) needs to go through chemo again, she is not going 
to have the medication necessary to keep from vomiting," she said.

Metcalf said they will be filing a report of officers in noncompliance of 
Proposition 215 with the Attorney General's Office. Each of the officers 
present at the Satterfield home will be named in the document, she said.

Metcalf said according to information she has from a two-year federal Drug 
Enforcement Agency study, one square foot of an optimum indoor garden can 
produce 23.1 grams of dried marijuana buds, less than an ounce. There are 
28 grams in an ounce.

She said an entire plant grown indoors is capable of producing about 3 to 4 
ounces.

Furthermore, yields from the plant will depend on a number of factors 
including seed stock, weather conditions, disease, mold and theft, Metcalf 
said.

She said the police weigh the entire plant, roots and all, when making 
their estimations.

"They are weighing them wet," Metcalf said. "You can't smoke them wet."

Yuba County District Attorney Pat McGrath said he agrees with the sign held 
by one demonstrator, "Dr.'s not D.A.'s."

"I'd be the first one to hold up that sign," he said. "I can guarantee 
D.A.s do not want to be making medical decisions. That's not our job."

But because the law is poorly written and because the doctors who give the 
recommendations do not provide guidance or guidelines for its use, district 
attorneys' offices have been put in that position, McGrath said.

He said doctors giving recommendations or approvals for marijuana use have 
a medical obligation to tell their patients how much marijuana to use to 
control their illness, just as they would with any other drug.

In Yuba County, his office has instructed local law enforcement to try to 
evaluate cases on an individual basis, McGrath said.

For law enforcement purposes out in the field, five plants or less or 11/2 
pounds of processed marijuana is acceptable if the person has a legitimate 
recommendation from a doctor, he said.

"Beyond those numbers it becomes a question of how much, where it's located 
and if there is an indication of other criminal activity," McGrath said.

While understandably most of the medical marijuana advocates have no trust 
in studies associated with law enforcement, McGrath said he is happy to 
rely on figures accumulated in a study done by the city of Berkeley in 
preparation for writing its own medical marijuana ordinance.

According to the figures in that study - most of which came from Mikuriya - 
the appropriate amount for an individual patient to have on hand is 2 1/2 
pounds per year, or 10 plants, he said.

Based on the Berkeley figures a plant grown outside will conservatively 
produce 4 to 6 ounces. An indoor plant will produce an ounce, McGrath said.

The study found 1 1/2 pounds per year to be sufficient, and in the most 
extreme cases 2 1/2 pounds were necessary so they went with the larger 
amount, he said.

But even using the Berkeley recommendations, the Satterfields were caught 
with nearly two times as many plants as being deemed necessary for medical 
need, McGrath said.

That brings into question whether they are medicinal or criminal users, he 
said.

McGrath said anyone with concerns about amounts and the legalities 
surrounding medical marijuana use can come to him for guidance on how to 
stay within the law.

He does not take names or phone numbers, and the district attorney's office 
does not keep a list of those who come in with questions, he said.

His first suggestion to those who have come to his office in the past is 
not to grow an excessive number of plants and not to grow them in an open 
location, McGrath said.

Doing so could invite burglaries and other public safety problems.

"I don't make any value judgments on this," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager